With the financial problem on its way to being resolved, the labor problem was not particularly daunting either.
Yuji's thinking was straightforward. The goal was to sell pharmaceutical factories or pharmaceutical research materials to clients as packaged deals. For smaller nations or villages that could not produce sufficient funds upfront, labor contributions in lieu of payment was an acceptable exchange.
In summary, beyond the village's existing financial channels, the pharmaceutical resource industry was making its final contribution of value by fueling this national-scale strategic project before being retired from its primary role.
Yuji's plan was thorough to an extraordinary degree. He had thought through virtually every angle worth considering.
For the Sand Village, the two greatest difficulties were funding and labor. After that came execution capacity and time. If the hardest two obstacles could be resolved, execution and time would cease to be problems.
Furthermore, beyond pharmaceutical resources, the Sand Village's medical treatment teams that had been built up and deployed externally were also generating foreign revenue through contracted medical services. After a period of development, this income stream had grown to a meaningful size.
Konoha might be able to research counterfeit medicines, but in terms of building and cultivating a complete medical system, it simply could not compare to the Sand Village.
The core of that system was Yuji himself, the soul of everything it had become. What Konoha could do was imitate as best it could, relying on figures like Tsunade to reconstruct a framework approximating what the Sand Village had built. It might achieve a degree of resemblance in structure, but the overall medical capability would not be comparable.
In this area, Yuji held absolute confidence in the Sand Village's advantage. At minimum in the near term, not even Tsunade could close the gap. Contracted external medical units, specialized medical weapons, treatment protocols and clinical solutions for diverse conditions, all of these were things the other hidden villages wanted to learn from.
A village's comprehensive medical system was extraordinarily complex. Konoha had only managed to produce counterfeit medicines. The distance between them and the Sand Village remained very large.
Setting pharmaceutical resources aside, medical weapons, medical knowledge, and specialized professional talent were all resources the Sand Village could exchange for money from the outside world.
Combined with Yuji's broader preparations, all of this together was what gave him the foundation to actually push forward the plan to transform the Land of Wind's environment.
"You are the Kazekage. You have clearly thought this through thoroughly. I have no objections," Chiyo said, speaking first.
"I support it," Shimizu said, raising his hand.
Sasori made a gesture of assent.
Everyone else followed in turn, expressing their support one by one.
Although this was a project of national destiny that sounded almost impossibly ambitious just from listening to it described, everyone present also understood that if it succeeded, the transformation it would bring to the country and to the village would be world-shaking in its scope.
If anyone else had proposed this, they might have had doubts.
But the Fourth Kazekage was different.
Because over these years, Yuji had already proven himself through results.
"Good," Yuji said, looking around the room and nodding with satisfaction when he saw no dissent.
"Then going forward, we will divide the responsibilities and each person will handle their own specific tasks."
What Yuji intended to do himself was personally engage with other ninja world powers in negotiation, exchanging pharmaceutical factory construction rights and research material sales for large amounts of funding and labor commitments.
Shimizu would be responsible for temporarily converting the village's military forces into an industrial and agricultural workforce and managing the allocation and scheduling of that transition.
Chiyo and Ebizo would coordinate with the Daimyo's office to mobilize the entire Land of Wind's civilian population and implement the relevant welfare and incentive policies.
Sasori and Rasa would command the military forces and oversee the physical execution of the development projects.
Shira and several other senior figures would manage the ongoing Land of Rain situation, including maintaining communication with Akatsuki.
In short, this enormous plan involved such a complex range of interconnected components that after each person received their initial assignment, further detailed negotiations within their respective areas were still required. The Sand Village's senior leadership meeting ran through an entire day and night before a preliminary working plan was finally hammered out.
Once the specific details had been established, Yuji rested in the Sand Village for a few days, quickly handled several pressing internal village matters, and then handed the administrative workload back to his reliable instrument Shimizu.
Then, accompanied by a small escort, he set out directly toward the Land of Rivers.
He needed to move quickly while Konoha's attention was still focused on the pharmaceutical market, quietly finalizing the cooperation agreements before anyone realized what was happening. The goal was to render Konoha's counterfeit medicine research materials effectively worthless before Danzo detected what was being arranged and introduced any new variables.
Hiruzen and Minato were relatively moderate in their stance. Within the entirety of Konoha right now, the only person still watching the Sand Village with sharp and unrelenting attention was Danzo alone.
Worth noting was that as time had passed, the broader ninja world's public posturing had gradually shifted from aggressive written condemnation of the Sand Village to a quiet and collective putting away of banners and drums.
Because the Land of Rain's situation was already settled. The Sand Village had transformed the Hidden Rain Village into its second hidden village and established a firm and stable military deployment throughout the country. The facts on the ground could not be changed. And beyond that, not a single force in the ninja world actually wanted to make an enemy of the Sand Village as it stood today.
So gradually, every nation and every hidden village had come to recognize that no matter how loudly they condemned the Sand Village, it would not cost the Sand Village so much as a piece of flesh. Unwilling to truly antagonize the Sand Village or invite consequences onto themselves, they had simply stopped making statements about the Land of Rain situation altogether.
Danzo had clearly run out of levers to pull on this front. Though he could at least point to one result: the Sand Village's public reputation had taken a visible hit for a time, which had partially accomplished what he had set out to do.
Ten days later, at the former Hidden Rain Village, now the Land of Wind's second hidden village.
Yahiko led an Akatsuki delegation to the village and met with Shira.
Both sides approached the encounter with considerable warmth. No weapons were drawn, no tension raised.
Because the Land of Rain was no longer burning. At least on the surface, it had returned to calm.
Although the entire country was still carrying the grief and somber atmosphere left behind by years of war, it was impossible not to notice that the rebuilt village itself had been completed to a remarkably high standard. The roads and buildings throughout the village had been repaired with careful attention to detail, and the internal districts had been thoughtfully planned and arranged.
Even the village's overall size had been meaningfully expanded.
"This is Lord Kazekage's intention," Shira said, speaking in the wide conference hall, laying out the Sand Village's plans for the Land of Rain going forward as he looked toward Yahiko.
"Our Sand Village intends to develop and harvest the Land of Rain's resources. But we will not take all of that revenue for ourselves. A significant portion will be reinvested into rebuilding the entire country, helping the Land of Rain reconstruct its economy across agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and cultivation-based industries. The village will also establish pharmaceutical factories within the Land of Rain's borders and hire local labor, paying wages to the ordinary people at the ground level."
"All resource conversion and commercial revenue can be placed under Akatsuki's management, on the condition that you agree to cooperate."
"Of course, the Land of Rain's reconstruction plan and all related actions must proceed according to our village's requirements."
"To be honest, although Akatsuki's members are essentially the Land of Rain's own people, in terms of construction planning and execution, you are unlikely to be as proficient as our Lord Kazekage. So the best approach is simply to follow our lead."
"This is also part of the agreement Lord Kazekage made with you. And it is the first step toward the peace that Akatsuki has been speaking about."
Nagato and Konan exchanged a glance from where they sat beside Yahiko.
They had witnessed the Sand Village's formidable military capacity with their own eyes. In a short span of time it had swept the Land of Rain clean of its internal chaos. The methods had been brutal and the destruction significant, but the sheer power this hidden village commanded was undeniably awe-inspiring.
They had initially assumed that after stabilizing the situation, the Sand Village would immediately begin extracting everything it could, showing its greedy face openly.
But the agreement the Kazekage had made with Yahiko turned out to be neither perfunctory nor a joke.
It was genuine.
The Sand Village was actually willing to let Akatsuki participate in the country's reconstruction.
The Land of Rain's resources needed the Sand Village's distribution channels to be converted into actual revenue. That was something Akatsuki simply could not accomplish on its own.
"One point I should clarify in advance," Shira added, remembering something. "Your Akatsuki members will be providing free labor. There are no wages."
"That is fine," Yahiko replied with almost no hesitation, agreeing directly.
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